Sequoyah is widely celebrated as the Cherokee Indian who, entirely from the resources of his brilliant mind, endowed his people with literacy - the only person in history to conceive and perfect in its entirety an alphabet or syllabary. Soon after the dawn of the nineteenth century Sequoyah began to realize the magic of writing. He and other Indians of the time, who occasionally saw sample of writing, called these mysterious pages the "white man's talking leaf". Sequoyah began to dream of an Indian "talking leaf". He experimented aimlessly at first, but gradually his conception took practical shape. Finally, after twelve years of labor, Sequoyah completed his syllabary, composed of eighty-five symbols, each representing a sound in the Cherokee language. The simplicity of the syllabary and its easy adaptability to the speech and thought of his people enabled them to master it in a few days. The Indian nation became virtually literate within a few months. This study of Sequoyah, one of the great Foreman's most interesting works, is a concise and compelling account of a remarkable genius.
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